Getting It Done: Myth Busters

  Leadership   New Practitioners  

Previously published in PM Network and Getting It Done: Project Management in Action.

As a project manager in the creative department of a large corporation, I spend my days among very imaginative team members.

Creative agencies may not be thought to use project managers the same way an IT or construction organization would. Yet the essence of my role—to produce a deliverable on time, within budget and in line with organizational strategy—remains the same. The only di­fference is that my field battles a major myth: The creative process trumps project management processes.

Wrong. Process isn’t a creativity killer. In fact, project managers can use it to help creativity flourish.

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Like in any project, I start the initiation phase by relaying the project’s specific goals and objectives to team members, who then help me shape how we will reach that goal.

Now is the time to be creative. If my team of designers, writers, developers and print- production specialists doesn’t voice possibilities early, I risk wasting time and money on a project with an unimpressive end product.

For example, we recently completed a project to create ad materials for our company to stand out at a college recruitment fair. Our outline started with the tried-and-true …

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